Middle School Reconfiguration

Sixth Grade Social Studies topics

Ancient civilizations

• Major physical features of the regions where ancient civilizations flourished
• Role of religion
  • Key tenets of the major world religions--Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism
  • How religious ideas influence current issues
• Forms of government
  • Types of governments
  • Compare those forms to existing systems in today's world
• Technologies and systems to meet community and personal needs
  • Manmade structures over time--irrigation, roads, building materials
  • Writing
  • Architecture, artistic expression, medicine, philosophy, drama, literature which come from technologies
  • Social classes, vocations, and gender roles within ancient civilizations
• Definitions: ancient, decline, customs, mosque, synagogue, temple, sacred, architecture, empire, innovations, technologies, irrigation, philosophy, drama, literature, social class, vocation, gender role

Middle Ages and the Renaissance

• Physical geography affecting economic and cultural expansion
  • Natural resources and physical features that affected expansion
  • Development of international trade via the desert, sea, and land and the resultant cultural exchanges between Asia, the Middle East, and Europe (e.g. the Silk Road)
• Importance of religion in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
  • Influence on cultural expression--the arts, architecture, government, education, family structure
  • Relations between the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish faiths during the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and the modern world--(e.g.Crusades, periods of peaceful coexistence, periods of conflict
• Systems of governance--steps toward self-rule during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
  • Significant events and ideas--the rise of the merchant class, the Magna Carta, the impact of the Black Death, Germanic tribes, feudalism, manors, city-states
  • Individual rights of people in the United States today compared with the rights of selected groups in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance--serfs, nobility, merchant class
• The Renaissance as a rebirth of cultural and intellectual pursuits
  • Technological and scientific developments--moveable type, telescope, microscope
  • Artists and thinkers and their contributions to visual arts, writing, music, and architecture--Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Palestrina, Shakespeare, Tallis

Revolutions impacting on the modern world--1750 to 1914

• Processes of revolution
  • Social, religious, and economic issues leading to revolution
  • Revolutions developing in multiple areas of human life--scientific, agricultural, industrial, political, medical, religious
• Impact of selected revolutions
  • People from revolutions--Napoleon, Martin Luther, James Watt, Isaac Newton, Madame Curie, Anton Van Leeuwenhoek
  • Outcomes of revolutions--scientific and Industrial revolutions, the Reformation, the French Revolution

Current global issues and students' rights and responsibilities in the interconnected worlds

• Affect of major world events of the 20th century on the world today
  • Key events, ideas, and leaders of the 20th century--World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts, dynamic Asian economies
  • impact of these events on the world today
• Current global issues facing the modern world and identify potential solutions
  • Pressing issues facing the world
  • Potential solutions to pressing issues
  • Individuals and groups making positive changes in the world today
    • Give evidence of their contribution

• Human rights and responsibilities in the world
  • Rights considered essential for all humans
  • Steps to protect these rights--support for sister schools, energy and resource conservation, letter writing, career choices, fundraising efforts
• Definitions: environment, pollution, political turmoil, poverty, famine, child labor, conservation

Sixth Grade Science topics

Solar system

• Moon--phases, revolution, reflection
• Earth's axis and orbit--tilt, axis of rotation, seasons, daylight, etc.
• Planets, comets, asteroids, and meteors, manmade satellites
• Space technology-
  • Using instruments
  • Using computers to investigate, predict, collect and interpret data from observations
• Solar system and gravity
• Size and distance of objects in solar system
  • Using speed of light as a measuring standard
• Appearance and apparent motion of groups of stars in the night sky
  • How cultures have understood and used constellations
  • Seasonal differences and use for calendars and navigation
• Definitions: Earth's tilt, seasons, axis of rotation, orbits, phases of the moon, revolution, reflection, asteroids, celestial object, comets, galaxy, planets, satellites, star, distance, force, gravity, gravitational force, mass, scale, solar system, constellation, Milky Way galaxy, speed of light, telescope, universe, sun, light years

Microorganisms

• Size, shape, and structure
• Compare characteristics and infer function
• Requirements--food, water, air, waste disposal, environment temperature, reproduction
• Plan and conduct an experiment about microorganisms
• Identify positive and negative effects of microorganisms
  • Microorganisms as decomposers
  • Diseases caused by microorganisms
  • Helpful uses of microorganisms
  • Roles of science in developing helpful uses
• Definitions: fungi, microorganism, decomposer, single–celled, organism, bacteria, protozoan, producer, hypothesis, experiment, investigation, variable, control, culture

Properties and behavior of heat, light, and sound

• Movement of heat between objects by conduction, convection, and radiation
• Light being produced, reflected, refracted, and separated into visible light of various colors.
• Sound and sound waves--vibration, pitch, energy used
• Definitions: angle of incidence, angle of reflection, absorption, conduction, conductor, convection, medium, pitch, prism, radiation, reflection, refraction, spectrum, vibration

Sixth Grade Art

• "Road to the River" by Maynard Dixon
• "Moonrise in the Canyon, Moab, Utah" by Sven Birger Sandzen
• "Richards ' Camp, Holiday Park - Weber Canyon" by James T. Harwood
• "Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, " "Luncheon of the Boating Party" by Auguste Renoir
• "View of Toledo" by El Greco (Domenikos Theotocopoulos)
• "Interior, Flowers, and Parrots" by Henri Matisse
• "The Bullfight" by Francisco de Goya
• "Christina's World" by Andrew Wyeth
• "Capriccio: A Street Crossed by Arches" (and other works) by Antonio Canaletto